


Cave Paintings

by Rogue of Heart (Akumeoi)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Karkat blood colour discovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-23
Updated: 2011-12-23
Packaged: 2018-02-10 16:15:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2031576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akumeoi/pseuds/Rogue%20of%20Heart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Karkat's blood colour is revealed, as are certain... feelings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cave Paintings

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU similar to the 12th Perigee's Eve one, in which SGRUB is over, Alternia and Earth have been restored, and the trolls and humans have gone back to live on their home planets. However, in this one Equius killed Gamzee before he could do any harm; Terezi's matesprit is Dave and her moirail is Karkat. Feferi and Eridan are both still dead. Karkat has successfully kept his blood colour a secret from everyone, including Terezi.

Karkat was scowling as usual as he walked down the long driveway to Nepeta's huge new hive. It was a crisp autumn night; the silver disks of the twin moons shone down on light-coated leaves and withering grasses.

Why was he going to see the crazy cat girl, again? Oh, right, because he was the leader and it was his job to make sure everyone was settling back into their lives with a minimum of drama. Because she had invited him. And because seeing Nepeta seemed like a more and more attractive prospect these days. He hated to admit it, but he thought he might be developing some matesprit feelings for her.

Shut up, Karkat. It's never going to work. She's too good for you. And her moirail would kill you if you laid a finger on her.

As he approached her hive, he wondered why all of a sudden he was so nervous.  
Nepeta answered the door with a double-wide grin and a swish of her bright blue tail.

"Karkitty!" she yelled, throwing her arms around his neck, nearly chocking him.

"Get the fuck off of me," Karkat growled, although as her huge coat enveloped him and her warmth pressed up against him, his heart beat a little faster. Laughing, Nepeta let go and ushered him inside.

"At least it wasn't a tacklepounce," she said.

"Pretty damn close, Karkat complained, rubbing his neck. Nepeta ignored him and instead picked a crate up of the floor and heaved it onto the bench by the door.

"Sorry about the mess," she said. "I've been painting absolutely efurrything. I have so much wall space! It's pawesome!"

"So that's why your hive is so fucking huge," Karkat said, rolling his eyes.

"Yup. Canvas," Nepeta said. "Do you want to see it?"

Honestly, Karkat couldn't care less about the artistic value of Nepeta's hive, but he was curious to see her shipping wall. How would it have changed now that it was missing three trolls? Had she added any of their handful of new friends to it? And the humans?

So he said, "Sure. Why not? Bore me to tears, I don't care. I'm only hear for the food."  
Nepeta's eyes sparkled with humour.

"Come on, silly," she said, opening a door to her right. She led Karkat through a maze of furniture, all temporarily stored in the two front rooms. They came to a room spread with drop-cloths, with some sketching on three walls and painting on the fourth. All the cans of paint were purple.

"The theme is Derse," Nepeta explained. Karkat raised his eyebrows suspiciously.

"How much of this is Eridan?" he said.

"What? None of it!" Nepeta said, cuffing him on the shoulder. "Are you crazy? Of course I wouldn't do that!"

"Batshit insane," Karkat muttered, wondering again what in the world he was doing there.

"This is the only finished room," Nepeta said, opening the next door. "This one is Operation Regisurp."

On the far wall was a huge picture of the black queen wearing her ring. The wall behind them was covered in plans and diagrams; the other two walls had scenes from the Operation like Vriska manipul8ing an unfortunate Dersite, Karkat trying to stop Jack from stabbing him, and Nepeta herself slaying an imp. All the furniture was back in the room; it was a sitting room.

"Very nice," Karkat said, trying not to look at Jack Noir. Nepeta seemed a little disappointed by his lukewarm response, but her grin didn't falter.

She showed him the doorway to her shipping room, but wouldn't let him go in (dammit!). The last room was her current work in progress, her soon-to-be respite block. The God Tier room.

Life-size picture of all the rolls covered the walls, even Eridan, wings spread in the full glory of a highest-level God Tier. Stacked in the corner was a pile of crates. Paint cans and brushes covered the drop cloths on the floor. On the ceiling was a half-finished frieze of everyone using their powers to make a circle of stars.

Karkat quickly scanned the walls but of course he wasn't there. This room was slightly more interesting to him because most of the trolls hadn't reached God Tier, so what they would look like was all in Nepeta's head. Leaning back, Karkat craned his neck to look at the picture on the ceiling.

"What do you think?" Nepeta said.

"It's really cool," Karkat grudgingly admitted. He took a step back and promptly kicked over a bucket of turquoise paint.

"Fuck!" he said. He grabbed the can and hauled it upright, but there was already a patch of green-blue spreading over the pristine white cloths.

"I got it," Nepeta sighed. She quickly scooped up the cloth and moved the paint can over onto the one next to it.

"I'll be right back. Don't break anything else," she said teasingly. She hustled away with the bundled sheet held at arm's length.

Karkat checked his shoes to make sure there wasn't any paint on them. They were fine. He decided he wanted to sit down, but there was no furniture in this fucking room, and Nepeta had told him to stay put. His eye fell on the stack of crates, which looked pretty sturdy, so he went over to them and plopped down on the one in front.

Great job, Karkat. You come into her hive, fail to compliment her on her artwork, and knock her paint tray over.

There was a crack from beneath him.

And you break her crates!

Karkat leapt up as a piece of wood broke off the side of the crate to reveal another can of paint. Bending over to pick up the piece, Karkat suddenly noticed a flash of bright colour on the wall behind the crates.

Peeking out from behind the crates was a tiny fleck of bright cherry red paint.  
Karkat stared. A wave of anxiety crashed over his head and he felt as if he were drowning.

It's just Aradia, he told himself. For some reason she's put some crates in front of Aradia. Maybe she was done first or Nepeta accidentally put a big smudge over her face or something.

But he couldn't resist pulling the top crate off the pile to see what was behind it.

He saw the tops of two very familiar nubby orange horns.

Suddenly Karkat felt as if he were suffocating. His blood thundered in his ears as he slowly began unstacking the crates and moving them away from the wall until the final troll on the mural was revealed.

God Tier Karkat smiled down at him. In one upraise palm was a ball of light similar to the ones that hung in the air wherever Vriska flew. In the other was his sickle. His candy red wings were as tall as him and together, twice as wide.

_Everything  
 **Stopped.**_

Karkat's vision narrowed to a point: his God Tier self's face, with bright red eyes and a halo of red around him.

Hyperventilating, he sat down on a crate, hunching over his knees. He forced his breathing to calm itself as a lump of ice slid into the pit of his stomach and sank there, cold, hard, ad heavy.

Someone knew his blood colour. That someone happened to be his matesprit crush. And that someone's moirail was an extreme classist who no doubt would kill him on the spot. Karkat wondered how long he had left to live.

Nepeta's approaching footsteps told him that she was coming back into the room. He heard a sharp intake of breath as she saw the scattered crates, her mural revealed, and Karkat sitting hunched over on the ground.

"Oh, Karkitty, you weren't supposed to see that," she said worriedly.

"It's a picture of me, so why the hell not?" Karkat snarled, looking up at her.

"I was going to paint over it," she explained. "So that no one else would know that your blood colour is mutant." Immediately, she clapped her hands over her mouth, her cheeks colouring olive. Karkat jumped to his feet, his pulse hammering in his ears. He was sure his face was completely red, but of course it didn't matter anymore.

"How long have you known?" he said accusingly.

"I guessed," Nepeta said timidly.

"How did you guess? Tell me!" Karkat yelled. She had just guessed? What if someone else guessed the same way? He had to get the truth out of her before she passed it on to someone else.

Nepeta muttered something about caves and paintings and sacred leggings.

Karkat grabbed the front of her shirt. "Nepeta Leijon, what the fuck were you thinking?" he said, pointing to the mural. When she didn't reply fast enough, he started shaking her.

"Stop it!" she said angrily, grabbing his hands. "Karcat, I've known about it since befur SGRUB! And I haven't told anyone at all, not even Equius!"

"You haven't?" Karkat said, calming down a little. His fear subsided, but the block of ice was burning a hole in his stomach.

"Of course not. But why does it matter?" she said.

Karkat stared at her. "You mean, why do I care so much that other people not know the colour?"

"No, that's not what I meant," she said, detaching one of his hands from the front of her shirt, but not letting go of it. "I meant, why do you hate yourself so much for it?"

Karkat's breath caught in his throat.

"I've had time to think about it, and I realise that this must be why you are so... angry all the time. It all fits. But I think... Karkitty, I don't care what blood colour you have."

"You what?" Karkat said, hardly able to believe his ears.

"I said I don't care whether your blood is on the hemospectrum or not," Nepeta said defiantly. "You could have black blood for all I care."  
Karkat still couldn't believe his ears. His spine began to tingle.

"Nepeta – I – you are really –" he began. A warm, fluttery feeling was filling his confused insides. The cold drained away, to be replaced with a swooping sensation.

"Oh, fuck words," Karkat said. He pressed his lips against Nepeta's.

Heat flooded through him, and his face began to burn. It was just a short kiss, but Karkat felt as if he had downed an entire cup of hot chocolate in one go. The sweet taste of catnip lingered on his lips.

Nepeta looked at him dazedly, her beautiful eyes huge.

"Karkitty, what?" she said.

Karkat had no choice but to confess. "I have flushed feelings for you," he said.

"Will you be my matesprit, then?" Nepeta said, her face splitting into a huge smile.

"Yeah. On one condition, though," Karkat said. Nepeta's face fell a little.

"What is it?" she said.

"That you get rid of that hideous thing!" he said, pointing at the painting on the wall. Nepeta laughed.

"Alright, it's a deal!" she said.


End file.
